Fast-food, retail strikes echo Occupy

Hundreds of fast-food and retail workers in Chicago went on strike this week to call for a living wage of $15 an hour and the right to form unions without interference. Organizers, including the activist groups Arise Chicago and Action Now, say the strikes are part of a quickly growing national movement.

“The low-wage workforce is growing so fast that (the movement) can't help but grow exponentially,” said Action Now Executive Director Katelyn Johnson.

In Chicago on Wednesday, employees from McDonald's, Dunkin Donuts, Subway, Macy's, Sears, Victoria's Secret and other chains met up around 5:30 a.m. and protested outside stores in the Loop and River North.

The protests drew an estimated 300 workers supported by the Workers Organizing Committee of Chicago, along with hundreds of supporters from Detroit and St. Louis.

“These workers are receiving enormous support from the community because people understand that you can't support a family the way things are,” said the Rev. C.J. Hawking, executive director of Arise Chicago.

REALISTIC WAGES?

A few months ago, Action Now and another activist group, Stand Up! Chicago, released a study claiming that downtown retailers and restaurants can easily afford to pay their workers at least $15 an hour.

As Crain's Greg Hinz reported in December, that report stated that the average merchant or restaurant would have to raise prices — or cut into profits — less than a nickel on the dollar to help their low-income workers earn a fair amount.

The average worker in the retail and restaurant industries in metropolitan Chicago makes about $9.80 an hour in wages, tips and commissions, and works 26 to 30 hours a week — figures that likely aren't much different downtown from elsewhere in the Chicago area, Stand Up! Chicago's Elizabeth Parisian told Crain's.

David Vite, the head of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, called Stand Up! Chicago and Action Now's conclusions at the time “ludicrous” and said the average retailer makes less than a 2 percent profit as a share of revenue.

Still, Illinoisans by a big margin say the minimum wage ought to be raised, a Crain's/Ipsos Illinois poll found this year. Fifty-eight percent told Crain's they favor a proposal to raise the minimum wage to $10 an hour, which would be the highest rate in the country. Twenty-four percent were opposed, with 18 percent saying they have mixed feelings; 1 percent were undecided. Support was strongest in Chicago, at 78 percent, and weakest downstate, at 52 percent.

The activist groups protesting this week have noted that many stores downtown are part of national chains that pay their CEOs millions of dollars a year. McDonald's head Don Thompson saw his total compensation triple to $13.75 million in 2012, when he became the restaurant chain's president and chief executive officer.

PART-TIME TRENDS

Meanwhile, employers are hiring more part-time workers for shorter shifts. The New York Times reported this week that in March, 7.6 million Americans who want more hours were stuck in part-time jobs, 3 million more than there were when the recession began at the end of 2007.

While the future of the fast-food and retail worker movement is unclear, the campaign's focus on public demonstrations, social media and broad community support draws parallels to the Occupy movement, said Steven Ashby, a professor of labor and employment relations at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

“What's happened in Chicago and New York, with Occupy and the success of the Chicago teachers strike, has really inspired people,” he said. “They give people hope that they can change their lives.

“They're using street action demonstrations and pickets,” Mr. Ashby continued. “It's very bottom-up, putting the workers themselves at the center and saying, 'This is your movement, you take it where you want.' ”

The immediate effects of the strikes haven't included changes in policy among the national chains or among franchisees in Chicago or New York. The transitory nature of fast-food and retail jobs means that the movement may have difficulty keeping workers involved if they aren't at their jobs very long.

As for changes at the restaurants and retailers, McDonald's acknowledged Wednesday that "a few workers may have walked off the job," but said its downtown restaurants remained open, and it was "business as usual for us." And representatives for Dunkin Donuts and Subway noted that the franchisees who operate their restaurants are the ones who determine hourly wages.

The lack of reforms so far may be another reminder of Occupy. Though Occupy raised Americans' awareness of Wall Street and corporate America, many industry observers argued that the movement didn't have a lasting impact.

Still, activists say the minimum-wage movement is "beginning to catch fire in a lot of the workers that were afraid to step out before," in the words of Action Now's Ms. Johnson. “The more people see themselves reflected in the story of these workers, the more it ignites something in them that says, 'That's not fair.' ”

Nike Chicago worker Tanesha Manuel, one of Wednesday's protesters, makes $8.25 an hour. She told Crain's, “It's costing me more to do shorter shifts," noting that transportation costs are a big problem because her current work schedule requires her to commute five or six days for shorter shifts, instead of three or four days for longer ones.

Ms. Manuel is a graduate of the Illinois College for Broadcast; her Nike job supplements money she makes as a radio freelancer. Her wages can't support her and her mother's living needs, she says, or help her pay back school loans.

"I enjoy my job at Nike. This isn't a malicious attack against my employer,” she says. "This is just an awakening that I'm loyal to Nike . . . but I want them to have the same loyalty to us."